The U.S. Census Bureau has confirmed what Richmonders have long suspected: The city’s population is up for the first time in 40 years.
Richmond had 204,214 residents in 2010, according to data released Thursday from last year’s decennial count. That’s a 3.25 percent increase over the 197,790 residents counted in 2000.
Other localities in the region continued to grow through the 2000s. Chesterfield County is the region’s population leader and the state’s fourth-largest locality, with 316,236 residents, up 22.7 percent over its total from 2000.
Henrico County, which led the region in 2000, had 306,935 residents in 2010. That’s an increase of 17 percent since 2000. Hanover County had 99,863 in 2010, up 15.7 percent since 2000.
While recent estimates have shown the city’s population rising, Richmond had not shown an increase in the decennial count since 1970, after the city annexed 23 square miles and 47,000 residents from Chesterfield County – a move later found by the U.S. Supreme Court to be motivated by an effort to preserve white majority power in the city.
Richmond’s population jumped from 219,958 to 249,621 after annexation, but it dropped to 219,214 in 1980, 203,056 in 1990 before bottoming out at 197,790 in 2000.
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